However this early arquebus did not have the matchlock mechanism traditionally associated with the weapon.
This early arquebus was a hand cannon with a serpentine lever to hold matches. The earliest form of matchlock in Europe appeared by 1411 and in the Ottoman Empire by 1425. History įurther information: History of gunpowder and Timeline of the gunpowder age To maintain a single sentry on night guard duty with a matchlock, keeping both ends of his match lit, required a mile of match per year. The matchlock was also uneconomical to keep ready for long periods of time.
This was one reason why soldiers in charge of transporting and guarding ammunition were amongst the first to be issued self-igniting guns like the wheellock and snaphance. It was also quite dangerous when soldiers were carelessly handling large quantities of gunpowder (for example, while refilling their powder horns) with lit matches present. The distinctive smell of burning match-cord was also a giveaway of a musketeer's position (this was used as a plot device by Akira Kurosawa in his movie Seven Samurai).
At night, the match would glow in the darkness, possibly revealing the carrier's position. Another drawback was the burning match itself. This was chiefly a problem in wet weather, when damp match cord was difficult to light and to keep burning. Various Japanese (samurai) Edo period matchlocks ( tanegashima).Īn inherent weakness of the matchlock was the necessity of keeping the match constantly lit. As the match was often extinguished after its collision with the flash pan, this type was not used by soldiers but was often used in fine target weapons where the precision of the shot was more important than the repetition. Ī type of matchlock was developed called the snap matchlock, in which the serpentine was brought to firing position by a weak spring, and activated by pressing a button, pulling a trigger, or even pulling a short string passing into the mechanism. This made the gun much more accurate at longer distances but did have drawbacks, the main one being that it took much longer to reload because the bullet had to be pounded down into the barrel. Ī later addition to the gun was the rifled barrel. This is the reverse of the familiar forward-dipping hammer of the flintlock and later firearms. The serpentine dipped backward, toward the firer, to ignite the priming. Most matchlock mechanisms mounted the serpentine forward of the flash pan. Įarlier types had only an "S"-shaped serpentine pinned to the stock either behind or in front of the flash pan (the so-called "serpentine lock"), one end of which was manipulated to bring the match into the pan. Both ends of the match were usually kept alight in case one end should be accidentally extinguished. For obvious safety reasons, the match would be removed before reloading of the gun. On release of the lever or trigger, the spring-loaded serpentine would move in reverse to clear the pan. The flash from the primer traveled through the touch hole igniting the main charge of propellant in the gun barrel. Upon the pull of a lever (or in later models a trigger) protruding from the bottom of the gun and connected to the serpentine, the clamp dropped down, lowering the smoldering match into the flash pan and igniting the priming powder. The classic matchlock gun held a burning slow match in a clamp at the end of a small curved lever known as the serpentine. Engraving of musketeers from the Thirty Years' War
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